Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1986. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - November 13, 1986
The two women were identified in June at a venereal disease screening program at St. Paul at which 134 members of two such "swing clubs" were tested, the national Centers for Disease Control reported.
They were the only people who tested positive for the virus.
The women, who belonged to different clubs, each reported having had sexual relations with at least 25 fellow club members, including five men with whom each had been intimate. One woman, 31 years old, is married to another club member; the other, 25, is single.
The Centers for Disease Control said two of the five men with whom both Minnesota women had repeated sexual encounters were reported to be bisexual. Neither could be found for testing.
Federal health researchers said that one of the most surprising things about the report was that few of the club members knew that their sexual practices placed them in a high risk category for contracting acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which cripples the body's immune system, leaving victims susceptible to serious infections and cancers. AIDS is caused by a virus that spreads through sexual intercourse or exchanges of blood, such as in shared hypodermic needles.
Two-thirds of the AIDS patients reported in the United States have been homosexual or bisexual men; only 1,819 patients have been female. Four percent of all cases have been linked to heterosexual transmission.
The women have shown only signs of infection with the AIDS virus.
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